For the past 10 days I traveled to Buffalo, NY to visit family, particularly my 92 year old grandmother. The drive wasn't very pleasant — 5,000 miles in a small pickup is no fun. But I did shoot this thunderstorm en route between Helena and Bozeman. The trick is to take a long exposure while steadying the camera on the steering wheel in a driving rain. This exposure was at least a couple of minutes.

On Monday, Park rangers shot and killed a 17-year-old sow grizzly near the Old Man Lake campground that had become unafraid of people and habitually entered campgrounds with her cubs, though she never bit or attacked anyone. On one hand, the Park managers were worried about the liability of a bear that they knew could possibly harm someone someday. On the other hand, there are critics, both in and out of the Park Service, that say the bear should have been given another chance. There is a method of hazing bears that does, to a degree, keep them out of trouble. The methods use dogs, "cracker" shells and other methods to scare bears away and teach them that campgrounds aren't places they should be. This bear was hazed using those methods in the summers of '04 and '05. She stayed out of trouble in 07 and 08, but once she had cubs, she went back to her campground ways.

The idea was to kill her and save her yearling cubs. They would be transferred to the Bronx Zoo in New York. But after she was shot, when the one cub was tranquilized, it died. The above photo is the surviving cub, awaiting transfer to New York today.

The effort has turned into a nightmare for the Park and saddened many folks. No one, even the people who made the decision to destroy the sow, are happy with it. Her story is a sad one and long one and we'll go into it in-depth in the next issue, as many facets are still developing.

For me, this taking this photo was simply gut wrenching. I hope I never have to take another like it. Grizzly bears don't belong in cages.

Red tree squirrels aren't just about nuts and seeds. They also love mushrooms. They'll cache them in the nooks of trees. How they know which ones to eat is a mystery to me.

It really is the rare day when I see or run into a bear in Glacier Park. When I do, I talk in low tones and keep a safe distance. I never approach them. Most bears want nothing to do with you. This photo was taken with a 400mm lens, which is a 600mm equivalent on a D300. Having said that, carrying bear spray is highly recommended for that chance close encounter. I could save your life. Black bears are far less aggressive than grizzlies. Right now Glacier is in the process of hunting down a sow griz and her cubs who consistently approached people in backcountry campsites with her cubs. This has been happening for years. The sow will be destroyed, the cubs will go to the Bronx Zoo, that's the plan at any rate. I have mixed feelings about killing a bear that hasn't actually hurt anyone. But you have to think she got food from someone somewhere. Why else would she cozy up to people in campgrounds? The bottomline?
The Park has to be ever vigilant about food storage and food use in the backcountry. I've seen plenty of folks in the backcountry who take no bear spray, no survival gear, nothing. They think because it's called a Park, that it is a Park. But it isn't. It's mostly wilderness and all the creatures, no matter how "friendly" they may appear, are wild. For example, goats, sheep, marmots and deer don't approach people because they "like" us. They approach us because we sweat and when we sweat we release a lot of salt. Glacier's critters are salt and mineral deficient, so they're attracted to you (or, in many cases, your pack). Ditto with feminine products. A bear would love nothing more than to chew on a Maxi-pad. Pack it in, pack it out.

Took a few days off from the Park (three exactly) and then went on a nice evening hike where I saw about a dozen species of birds, including three hawk owls. This one, just before dark, caught a vole, jumped up on this stump and ate it in front of me.